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Can innovators be created? Field experimental evidence from an innovation contest

Existing theories and empirical research on how innovation occurs largely assume that innovativeness is an inherent characteristic of the individual and that people with this innate ability select into jobs that require it. In this paper, we investigate whether people who do not self-select into being innovators can be induced to innovate, and whether they innovate differently than those who do self-select into innovating. To test these questions, we designed and implemented an innovation contest for engineering and computer science students which allowed us to differentiate between those who self-select into innovative activities and those who are willing to undertake them only after receiving an additional incentive for doing so. We also randomly offer encouragement to subsets of both the induced and self-selected contest participants in order to examine the importance of confidence-building interventions on each sample. We find that while induced participants have different observable characteristics than those that were ‘innately’ drawn to the competition, on average, the success of induced participants was statistically indistinguishable from their self-selected counterparts and encouragement does not change this result. Heterogeneity in treatment effects suggests an important role for the use of targeted interventions.

Policy implications

Innovators can be created through inducement subsidies, but that targeting inducement is likely to be more cost effective especially since targeting can be based on information that is relatively easy to collect.

Key information

Treatment description

Two interventions, one a monetary incentive to induce innovation and another non monetary motivational support, were used to explore self-selection in innovation.

Outcomes

Signing up for the contest, submission of app, and quality of app. Quality of submitted app was assessed by a panel of expert judges who are also the people that select the problem the app is supposed to solve. Quality was judged based on novelty, functionality, user friendliness, and commercial value.

Results

Participants that were induced into the competition had different observable characteristics, but their success was statistically indistinguishable from their self-selected counterparts. Encouragement does not change this result.

Additional information

Hypotheses/research question

Whether and how induced innovators perform differently than self-selected innovators? Do the encouragement emails affected these groups differently?

Study design

Students were invited to enroll in the contest through a series of newsletters and emails, which were randomly varied by content.

Trial population and sample selection

Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Department students at UC-San Diego

Key facts

Stage: Working paper

Year: 2018

Sample: The sample sizes per treatment arm are as follows: 52 participants in the self-selected, no managerial intervention group; 51 in the self-selected with managerial intervention group; 44 in the induced, no managerial intervention group; and 43 in the induc